Hi Nathan, can you come back on the process of creating this international team?

Hey! It was a long process that had a lot of twists and turns, but we never lost our way and what had to happen happened. There have been a lot of exchanges between different structures and players, and the result at the finish is different than what we expected at the start, but "everything happens for a reason" and I am extremely happy with the line-up, probably more than the initial five we had in mind.

How did you get in touch with each other ? Are you still adding players on Steam like in the good old days? Or are things more formal?

Everyone pretty much knows each other on the scene. Adding on Steam is a little complicated at the moment, but it's still quite simple. Making contacts, discussing projects, possibilities and desires and seeing what is feasible or not. For structures, it is much more formal since the stakes are totally different in the present era.

Can you explain to us the role of each player within this line-up ?

Quite simply - AleksiB leads, I help him on team structure and macro decisions (agenda, veto, map approach, etc...), mantuu snipes and valde and issaa focus on themselves as much as possible. The transition is not instantaneous given their former roles, it is a process that will take a little time but in which we have complete confidence.

NBK, ISSAA, Aleksib, valde et mantuu, first OG of the history of CS:GO (Photo : NBK)

mantuu is by far the least experienced player in the team. How did you scout him and why did you end up picking him?

First, I've got to thanks someone that's quite known on the French scene for that: enkayJ (former NV analyst). He contacted me about mantuu, a player with enormous potential and ready to move to the next level. So we added him "on the list", played a little bit with him and the feeling was very, very good. From an external point of view, the choice was not easy: 2nd awper at aTTaX, very few experience... But from a player's point of view, I have complete confidence in him and what he is already delivering is amazing considering his rookie status. He totally fits in the team and is very adaptive in his game. I am sure he will surprise many people! :D

Many organizations are following the market quite closely, why did you choose OG?

OG is a player-led organization and it is a shared desire of this group of players - to have influence in decisions and be an integral part of the project. The values we share with Céb are very similar when it comes to creating a team or leading such a project, and each player shares this philosophy. Our objective is to win (obviously) but without putting some time-related pressure on ourselves - we're following a process, putting the proper effort and the results will come naturally.

Ceb, the Frenchman from the Dota 2 team, seems to describe methods specific to OG, a bit like Astralis on CS:GO. Can you tell us more about it?

Not much for now - our inception is very recent and the creation of a team is entirely focused on the game and our knowledge. OG's contribution will be invaluable during more troubled periods or when preparing for major tournaments, in order to fully exploit our potential. For the moment, we have all the keys and they trust us completely with the team.

Concerning communication, some people think that it is detrimental to not be able to speak your native language, while Fearoth told us - through his international experiences - that he actually finds it more efficient, since people can't dwell on useless words and thus only give essential in-game information. What is your opinion on the subject?

It is such a complex subject that it plays on several levels: the level of comms asked, the English-level of the players, the way the group and each person communicate inside... For the moment there are indeed mistakes, but the problems we encounter are universal communication problems, and are not related to speaking English.

Are your teammates also comfortable with English?

Totally, everyone is comfortable.

NBK say good bye to France

A few months ago, when he was at GamerLegion, Ex6 said that "international teams are the future". Today, GamerLegion has once again become a full Swedish team. What is your opinion on the international teams? Is it the future for you too (like on LoL, DotA 2, or even other games), or will it always remain a possibility among the others like today?

Speaking of the top level, I have always said there would be a majority of international in the long term (I'm talking 10 years timespan here, not 2-3 years) and the transition is now begining gradually.  I think there will always be 1-2 national teams per country and in the subtop too. I can see a 50/50 scene in terms of the distribution of national and international teams at the top and subtop level.

How is the lead with Aleksib going? Are you going to share the task?

We've had discussions, everyone keeps an open mind. Aleksib is the only leader right now, and we give all our ideas to make the game as complete as possible given our respective experiences, but he manages everything. Double-lead is a possibility, but we're starting this way and we'll see what happens next!

A growing number of professional players are trying their hand at new positions, including that of leader. You are an example of this, as well as valde or Aleksib. In your opinion, does it help a player to improve his game or is it more detrimental in general ?

I think it all depends on the players, but I think that for the majority of them, it makes them worse. In particular the transition from leader to player is very complicated and still takes quite a long time for the majority who have difficulty (especially at the comm/ideas level) in becoming soldiers again. For example, for me, I just have a mental switch and I manage to be a soldier without encroaching on AleksiB, and I even push his lead and get everyone behind his ideas 100%.

Do you have a staff behind you, a coach, an analyst? If so, can you introduce them to us. If not, why not?

Not at the moment. We obviously want to be supervised later by competent people, but given the cosmopolitan group we have, that we have never played together before... It's pretty hard to find the people who would fit us if you thought about it. The Summit will be a first part of the answer, to see how people play in official games and under pressure, to know what direction we should take regarding this matter.

Is this the biggest challenge of your career?

Probably? From the inside, I just replicate what I do with each team and each group of people - move forward, and be good at CS AS A TEAM. Individual stats are of very little interest to me, and I put my person at the complete disposal of the team, I want to have the best possible collective expression. With this idea, I could play with Pierre, Paul or Jacques, the idea would be the same and the challenge would be similar.

A new challenge for a man who already won everything (Photo : Timo Verdell)

Many people miss you at Vitality, especially since the last results are relatively average since your departure. Have you looked closely at their journey since shox joined? If so, what do you think?

Of course I've been looking at most of the results of their matches........ I think everyone knows the French scene: D It's a transition period for them, and I think there's always a question of role, especially in CT, they're still a work in progress on that side while the other top teams are finished products. Maybe my CT lead wasn't so useless after all...  As they have already said, the change was not necessarily related to the level of play but more to a different vision of the team and how to do things. The way it happened was not ideal, but it happened and it was done. Whatever happed, I was going to ask to stop with the team if there was no deep discussion after Blast Moscow anyway. 

Is there still room for a 100% FR team, number one in the world?

With ZywOo, anything is possible... I think there is room for it, even if the road is long, and we almost did it during the year, but as long as I'm in a competing team I'll do everything I can to make sure it doesn't happen, obviously: p

You participated in the BYOC of the DH Winter in response to ZeratoR's donation goal. What do you retain from this adventure in mix - and your second place - with bodyy, MoMaN, CarlJr and ZeratoR?  

It was simply incredible! Everyone played above their average level, fully focus and open-minded, and I was brought in to go as far as possible. Honestly, I really wanted to win (for the story... And for the bragging rights) but Lilmix was a real proper team and pretty hard to get them out of their comfort zone, they looked pretty chill (compared to 9INE that fully tilted against us for example). Besides, the atmosphere was great, we managed to share it with our audience and that's all that matters. I really think there was no negative point:)